The Latest Wow: Waste Your Time
Carlie is an over-achieving teenager. She’s driven to excel academically, athletically and socially. She has trouble with that word “relax.” But in a moment of clarity, she wowed me with this: “I would like to know my future to see if I’m wasting my time, because if I am wasting my time, I want to waste it better.” […]
The Latest Wow: Set Yourself Free!
Here’s a poem written by a client who set herself free: The wind blowing across the sea Makes me wonder what it feels like to be free I am trapped by my memories wondering why I chose that path for me Never letting go of the past, you see always punishing myself indeed […]
Make YOU Happy
Jill and Trent have been in a relationship for a long time. They love each other very deeply and treasure their time spent together. The problem? Trent can’t leave his former girlfriend, Laura. He doesn’t love her, but he can’t bring himself to cause her pain. Trent is one of those people who easily—too easily—feels guilty and […]
Stuck in Anger
A client of mine—I’ll call her Anna—shared this tidbit by Garrison Keillor: “When you’re angry at people, you make them part of your life.” That’s so true! Prolonged anger usually has a focus, and that focus usually involves a particular person. I can’t imagine being angry at my printer for two weeks—20 minutes yes, but […]
Keep Your Mouth Shut! Really?
Numerous times in our lifetime—no, in a single day—we’re faced with a dilemma: Do I open my mouth or keep it zipped? Do I take the risk or play it safe? It’s not easy being verbally courageous. I fail at it more times than I succeed. But when I do succeed, it leaves me feeling […]
Getting Naked
We all carry around our share of shame-debris. That is, unless we grew up in a perfect environment with perfect parents, perfect siblings, perfect everybody, or—let’s face it—planted on a perfect planet. Recently, I discovered a video where Brené Brown makes us feel pretty normal about our shame. She also makes us feel normal about our […]
She Turned Me Into a Puppet … But Puppets Can’t Love
“She turned me into a puppet, and then wondered why I no longer loved her. The answer is simple—a puppet doesn’t have a heart.” “As men, we share a single purpose: to find that one special female who will kill us just slowly enough that by the time we reach 80, we’re already dead.” To read […]
Black or White?
By this time of year, winter has clearly worn out its welcome—we’re tired of it. If we’re not mindful, the dreariness and cold can transport our mood to the basement. As for the snow, it’s pretty but it does create its share of challenges. The other day, a colleague and I were watching it come down […]
The Latest Wow: Stay Out of the Mud!
Sometimes, we have to make the same mistake a bazillion times before we wake up. It’s downright humiliating! One of my clients knows this experience all too well. His mistake was assuming responsibility for the happiness of others. Since this just can’t work, he was continually banging his head against the wall. In time he woke up! I knew it when he wowed […]
Get in Touch with Your Inner Teenager
Let’s face it, there’s something about our teenage spirit we miss. Yes, back then we were reckless–even stupid at times, but there was something horrendously precious about it, too. Call it our free spirit, our drive, our passion. How do we recover that spirit? Maybe the answer lies in recovering that which we abandoned amid […]